Monthly Archives: March 2010

The Pintail

Posted on March 31, 2010 | Leave a comment

You’d think, in the world of modern technology, that there’s not much more that can be done with cameras, recording and so on. However, this “pintail” device, by Defne Civelekoglu, seems like something new.

Essentially, the device contains a tiny camera, microphone, GPS and (bizarrely) heart rate monitor. When activated, the camera takes photos automatically every 5 seconds, the microphone records constantly, and the GPS keeps a record of where you are.

The device is aimed at travellers. The idea is that you can fully record a journey with just one click, and then just carry on with your trip without worrying about cameras and stuff, allowing you to actually enjoy your travels.

Which we think is a pretty neat idea. There is something in not having to stare down the lens of a camera, and we love the idea of having such a complete record of a trip without even trying. And on top of that we think it looks pretty cool as well, given how much technology is involved, so a win all round…

(via Notcot)

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Flying saucer crosses arctic

Posted on March 30, 2010 | Leave a comment

This saucer-shaped vehicle (which we admit can’t actually fly) has actually been around for some time. Called the Xof1 by Marcelo da Luz, it broke the world record for distance covered by a solar-powered car in 2008. Now however, da Luz wants to prove its capabilities in more dramatic form, by driving it across Canada’s ice sheets on a 185km ice-road.

That seems almost impossible for something powered purely by the sun, especially given the limited daylight hours in the far north, and the weakness of the midnight sun.

However, da Luz is confident he can succeed. The car can apparently reach 120km, partly because it weighs just 225kg, and is capable of working below freezing. Having said that, if it gets too cold, there is a very real chance the driver could freeze since the car has no heating. On the other hand, if it gets too warm, the ice road will melt.

Da Luz is due to leave on April 10th, so we will keep an eye on his progress…

(source: Green Diary)

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Posted in creative, environment, transport

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New Coca-cola packaging

Posted on March 29, 2010 | 1 Comment

We’re loving this new Coca-cola packaging which sees the iconic bottles revolutionised to become square and streamlined.

Unfortunately, it’s actually the work of design student Andrew Kim, rather than something by Coca-cola themselves, but nevertheless it looks pretty awesome. And it might just be an undergrad project, but its brilliance lies in taking what has to be one of the most ‘accepted’ designs around, and trying to make it better.

Firstly, we really like the simplified logo and graphics, but this isn’t the main selling point of the design. The square edges mean that these bottles can be packed tighter and closer, especially into huge (square) containers and packaging crates, and they even stack. Consequently, an extra 4,000 bottles fit into every packing container, saving huge amounts of money and oil on transport.

This might not sound like a big deal but we’re guessing that there are quite a few containers of Coca-cola shipped around the world every year, and decreasing the volumes can’t be bad…

(via The Dieline)

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Posted in advertising, baby creative, creative, drink, environment

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No to Heathrow

Posted on March 26, 2010 | Leave a comment

You may well have seen today’s news that Heathrow’s proposed third runway is having a few difficulties. Opposition has been pouring in from environmental groups, local business, councils and residents, who claimed that the third runway contradicted environmental policy. And now the Lord Justice has ruled that they have a point, and that the third runway is subject to legal challenge. Which we’re extremely happy about.

You see, over the years, we’ve played our Baby-sized role in this whole process. At key times in the campaign we’ve worked with Greenpeace, enoughsenough, the WWF and Restore UK to put together some (pretty clever) tactical ads, and we also organised an event called Make a Noise which was an anti-Heathrow rally in May 2008 held in Sipson, a village due to have been flattened if the third runway went ahead.

For this we helped by doing creative for press ads, building a website, other digital ads, posters and carnival packs. The event made the national news, with the largest-ever human ‘NO’ being made to say ‘no to Heathrow’.

We’re not trying to claim that we made this landmark decision happen by ourselves, but we’re delighted to be involved in preventing what really could have been an environmental and economic disaster.

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Posted in advertising, baby creative, Conservation, creative, environment

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Diamond-encrusted mice

Posted on March 25, 2010 | Leave a comment

We’re not quite sure what to make of these  mice from Swiss company Pat Says Now.

Each one is crafted from 18k gold (either white gold, yellow or rose) and set with 2 carats of untreated, brilliant cut (and ethically sourced) diamonds, either in the shape of a flower, or scattered across the mouse. And the thing will set you back £16,200, or $26,730.

Now on one hand they are obviously quite pretty (or at least certainly sparkly) and we are usually all for making everyday items interesting. Having said that, we’re just not sure they’re £16,200 worth of interesting. What really disappoints us is the overall look of the things – they’ve square and boring. The buttons look clunky. They’re not even cordless, and nothing interesting has been done with the diamonds.

There is a difference between good design and expensive design, and we reckon this comes solely under the latter.

(source: If It’s Hip, It’s Here)

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Posted in creative, home

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The MoviePeg

Posted on March 24, 2010 | 1 Comment

Yes, it’s another blog post about an iPhone accessory, and yes these really should be getting dull by now. However, we actually think this is something a bit new.

The MoviePeg brings the iPhone (or iPod Touch) into a comfortable position to look at movies without the need to hold it up yourself. And it works horizontally and vertically, comes in a lovely variety of colours, and it is only $4.99…

We know it’s basically just a block with a dent in it, but we love it as ultimate proof that sometimes it’s the simple ideas…

(source: Stilsucht)

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Posted in baby creative, creative, home, video

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Water

Posted on March 23, 2010 | Leave a comment

We’ve always been confused by the idea of a water shortage. The planet is, after all, mostly water. But this handy little thing from our friends at TreeHugger makes it all make sense.

So there we go. Having so much water really doesn’t help when so much of it is either salty or frozen. So think about that next time you’re watering your lawn in the middle of an English spring.

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Posted in baby creative

The world’s oldest fast food joint

Posted on March 22, 2010 | Leave a comment

Now from the title you might think we’re talking about some dodgy place in the wrong end of Istanbul, but we’ve actually found somewhere even older.

This was in fact the fast food shop of Vetutius Placidus in Pompeii, which closed one thousand, nine hundred and twenty one years ago, and reopened yesterday, with quite a bit of the original decor still in tact.

Fast food of course seems like a very modern thing, but the Romans apparently loved the stuff, with many people in Pompeii not even having kitchens and getting takeaway on a regular basis. And if you look closely, you can see there’s not even that much that has changed.

You’ve still got the long, L-shaped counter, and people could either sit in or take away. Apparently the real difference is the food, with considerably less kebabs and pizza, and more cheese, honey and assorted fruits.

Still, it’s nice to know that at the height of the Roman Empire, they were still no more cultured than a bunch of boozy students…

(Kuriositas via Notcot)

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Posted in Conservation, drink, food, home

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Moss tables

Posted on March 19, 2010 | Leave a comment

The idea of ‘bring the outdoors indoors’ is of course quite an old one now. However, we still can’t get enough of it, so we had to post these.

This moss furniture is part of the ‘secret garden’ collection by ayodhya. Each item is actually planted with dried moss, meaning that everything involved here is natural. And it’s probably superbly comfortable as well.

In fact, we’re rapidly becoming fans of ayodhya, because along side these funky moss-creations, they also exhibited these things.

Now they might not look like much, but both items are actually made from newspaper. The fact that you really can’t tell is pretty excellent, but we really like the idea of being able to flick through the pages every time you walk past. And of course it’s all recycled, which is never a bad thing.

So we’ll be keeping an eye out for any more pieces of ayodhya design if anyone has any tips…

(source, via Notcot)

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Posted in art, creative, environment, home, Plants

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Greenpeace vs Nestle

Posted on March 18, 2010 | Leave a comment

We’ve been loving the row between Greenpeace and Nestle over the last few days. For those who haven’t come across this yet, Greenpeace took objection to Nestle using palm oil  grown on land that had been claimed from Indonesian Rainforest – the last refuge of the orang-utan.  So they made this film:

A few people saw it and Nestle got all hot and bothered and made YouTube take it down for copyright infringement. At which point Greenpeace migrated the video to Vimeo and the viewers flocked in, driven by the winds of controversy.

Firstly, can we just say we love the ad. So it is a little bit gross, but equally you definitely get the point. And we bet you remember orang-utan fingers when (if) you next eat a KitKat.

Secondly, we really thought Nestle were smarter than to ban it. Anything prohibited instantly becomes more desirable, be this sweeties, alcohol, drugs or forbidden fruit. And it just looks like they have something to hide.

So we just thought we’d do our bit and get involved in the whole saga by posting the video to yet another site.

P.S. we got the video from YouTube where it has mysteriously reappeared. If Nestle get that one removed too, there’s always the Vimeo link here…

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Posted in advertising, baby creative, Conservation, creative, environment, food, Plants, video

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